College's Program Boosts New Market(Reprinted from the San Fernando Valley Business Journal)

May
28, 2007 -- If the workers at the just-opened Hows Market in North Hollywood seem especially helpful, thank Los Angeles Valley College.

As part of an agreement related to the status of the area as a community redevelopment zone, Hows utilized the school to help recruit and train the workers at the store.

The school prescreened a pool of candidates and then provided two weeks of customer service training.

In all, about 45 of the store’s 100 workers were hired from the program. Most were entry level, but the program also yielded a floral manager and four meat and seafood employees, said Mark Oerum, one of the four partners at Hows.

“The results coming out of that were just incredible,” said Oerum, noting that the customer training was handled by a professional trainer with a business background.

L.A. Valley College partners with a number of city agencies and private employers to provide worker training. Some of its programs include recruiting and job training for the county’s Metropolitan Transit Authority and Superior Super Warehouse Stores, which worked with the college on a 75-hour customer training course last year.

Late last year, Valley College was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. labor department to train youth from 150 area high schools for jobs.